Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 8:29 pm.

The passageway looked like the underground secret tunnels that medieval castles had in the movies. I turned around to get a better grasp of the situation.

The tunnel had a limestone paved floor covered in moss and algae, and brick walls about 2 meters apart, curved to create an arched ceiling. Flambeaus flickered along the long tunnel, keeping a distance of 5 to 6 meters from each other. And I stood somewhere in the middle of this seemingly unending passageway wondering which way to go, the front or back.

"Hey, Riri." I called out to my guide. "Wanna play rock-paper-scissors? Like old times."

"Ehh, no way!" Riri replied, pouting, from the video screen. "You are gonna scold me, when Riri wins and picks the way that turns out to be bad."

"Well, I'll praise you if it goes smoothly that way." I tried to tempt her into playing. "Also you get to make fun of me if I win and choose the wrong way."

"Ohhh! That will be fun." She grinned, "Let's play rock-paper-scissors."

Nope, it won't be fun for you, partner. I was pretty confident in my ability to lose the game. I scarcely ever won in any game involving luck.

"Rock…paper…scissors." We both spoke out, extending our hands forwards.

"Oh come on, Lady Luck, you freaking biatch!" I yelled out, witnessing my first rock-paper-scissors victory in a few years.

"Wahahaha! Riri lost! Riri lost!" She screamed, spinning around again, spreading her arms wide.

"Three times the charm?" I suggested Riri for making it a 3-match game instead.

"Nope. Master would never accept that If Riri had won." And she rejected it without a moment's consideration.

"Tch, when did you get so smart?"

"Teheheh…"

Fine, Whatever happens, happens. I sighed and stepped forward choosing the front side.

It was a pretty smooth ride as we walked along the tunnel while talking about our old adventures. The old times were pretty chaotic and tiring. But thinking back to those days put a smile on my face.

From time to time it got a little eerie inside the tunnel though, with the sudden wind whistling, rats and bats darting around.

"It looks like I chose the right path, Riri." I bragged. "The wind's blowing this way. It means there's an open space nearby. Hence, we are close to the end of the tunnel."

"Hmph!" She pouted, folding her hands over her chest.

Soon enough I found a different light source, other than torch fire, illuminating the dark passage. Bright daylight surged inside, putting the firelight to shame.

Just a little bit more, I'll be out of this dark and damp place soon.

"Look out, Master!" Riri suddenly screamed just before I could take a step out of the tunnel.

"Woah!" I stepped back immediately, as I realized my next step would result in a great fall. I bent my body forward and stuck my head out of the tunnel for a better look. "What the hell?"

The tunnel ended in the middle of a huge pit with a radius of more than 50 meters. I couldn't even grasp the depth of the pit or the height of the surface from the tunnel.

"I think there's a big thanks in order for Riri." She gloated.

"You wish. You are my support AI. You are supposed to do these things anyway." I stated.

"Whatever, I'm happy anyway. For the first time, it wasn't Riri but Master who chose the wrong path. Heheh." My remark didn't seem to faze Riri, as she kept chuckling. Not only did she save me from the fall but also my chosen path turned out to be a dead end.

Geez, do I have to go all the way back again? I sighed while turning back and began walking. And Riri kept annoying me with her giddy mood.

"Hehe, this is the best day of my life. Master, which victory dance do you like more?" She began dancing, showing her weird but cute moves. "So, what do you think, Master? I think the first one…"

"Shush!"

"What? You can't stop me. It's my time."

"Stop talking. I think I can hear something." I stared forward inside the passageway, squinting my eyes. "Someone is screaming."

Soon after, I caught a glimpse of a man sprinting toward me while screaming at the top of his lungs. "Ahhhh!!"

As he closed in I realized it was none other than Shinji, which made me irritated instead of joyous about finally encountering a familiar companion.

"Oh, hey Rio." Spotting me, he shouted, "Run! Winter is coming!"

"What?" I frowned, standing confused, as he moved past me towards the end of the tunnel. "Ah, that's a dead end. A huge pit."

Alerted by my warning, he stumbled down towards the pit, unable to fully stop himself. But at the last moment, he managed to clasp the last bit of the ground, as his whole body dangled outside the tunnel. He then pulled himself up.

Just about then, the ground shook as if an army was marching down the tunnel. Then it suddenly hit me. My eyes grew wider, as I looked forward.

Winter is coming.

Hundreds of undead monsters kept moving toward us crawling down the passageway, even climbing along the walls and ceiling.

"Fucking hell? You brought along your friends to kill me?" I yelled at Shinji, clenching my fist in anger.

"How the hell am I supposed to know it was a dead-end?" Shinji yelled back, sweat started to gather around his forehead. "Anyway, do something. You are the smart one."

"Shut up! Without a freaking miracle, there is no way out here." Death awaited us in both ways.

"Dammit!" Shinji cursed.

Undeads kept marching forward, closing in on us. The amount was too much for the two of us to fend them off. If only I had more time in hand to figure out something. Oh, wait…

"Shinji!" I called out. "keep them busy while I chant."

"You got something?" Shinji asked with desperate eyes searching for hope to live.

"Nope." Crushing his hope immediately, I brought out my spellbook and started chanting a spell. "Hear my call, oh lord of lightning. Bring forth your wrath into this wicked realm…"

"Furiyaaa!" Shinji shouted out, dashing towards the undead army and engaged in an all-out battle.

The mobs died with a single slash of his huge greatsword, but the sheer number of monsters was too great for him to keep up. Soon he started to back down slowly, as scratches and bite marks started to pile up on his entire body and in just a few seconds, his HP dropped under half.

"Hurry up for god's sake. A big-ass zombie is coming. I can't take him alone." Shinji screamed as he kept swinging his big sword all around. "Rioooo!"

Offering no heed to his shouts, I concentrated on my chanting. If I made any mistake, I would need to chant the whole thing from the start again.

"Electro Chain Explosion." It took me more than 10 seconds to speak out the chanting spell, before finishing it by calling out the skill name. But instead of attacking the monsters, I targeted my strongest skill on the ceiling and walls of the tunnel.

"Shit!" Realizing my intentions, Shinji dashed toward my side, leaving the battle immediately, and saved himself by a hair's length. "Warn me before you do something like that, Bastard."

The skill burst through the stone walls, 7 times in a row, bringing down the ceiling and walls. It created a huge mess of stone and boulders, completely obstructing the passageway.

"Whew." I sighed in relief. "That should buy us some time."

"Yeahhh! So, what do you say, Rio?" Shinji beamed, turning at me. "Aren't you lucky that I was here at the time of this crisis?"

"You are the one who brought the crisis here, dumbass." I raged, clenching my fist.

"Whatever." He smirked, shrugging a bit.

Ugh, this guy is impossible.

"By the way, how did you end up with so many undead?" I asked, giving up the idea of arguing about his comments.

"Well, I found a box inside a huge room. When I took it, suddenly all the statues around started moving, turning into the undead. Lots of them also came out of the ground like those zombie movies. At first, I was fighting them, but before I knew it there were like hundreds of them. So I ran away." Shinji explained.

"Then? How did you end up in this tunnel?"

"I kept running until there was a dead end. Then somehow the wall in front of me opened up. After that, I had been running in this tunnel until I met you."

"Pushed a brick maybe?" My eyes rolled, annoyed by his insane luck. "Anyway, that means this tunnel is connected to other areas. Most probably this dead-end also connects to another path."

We began looking around for a way out. I tried everything like pushing bricks, extinguishing the flame torches, and searching for any signs, but nothing worked. We could not dig out of here blindly either, since we had no map with us.

Dammit, this is a freaking game. Give us a hint or something.

"What the hell?" Shinji suddenly yelled out.

"What happened?" I turned at Shinji, hoping he found the way out.

"I opened the box." He said, looking dejected. "It's just some fucking chocolate beans."

"What?" I had a hard time believing that a whole undead army was guarding some beans. "Are you sure? It might be something special. Let me take a look."

I took a bean from the box and clicked on it to open the item details window.

Fermented Cocoa

A regular cocoa bean, the key ingredient to produce chocolates or chocolate confections.

"...."

Apparently, the undead here loved chocolates.

"Fuck it." Said Shinji, as he proceeded to throw the box into the pit.

"No, wait." I stopped him. "I'll take it. Selling them will get me some money. I'm totally broke right now."

Then we again focused on searching for a trigger to open up a new pathway. And Soon after, Shinji shouted out again. "Urggh!'

"What is it this time?" I let out a sigh.

"I hit my head into this torch handle." He groaned, rubbing his head.

"Get hit again, or else you'll die drowning."

"You think, I'm stu…"

Shinji stopped talking suddenly, jumping down the rock he was standing on, as the ground started to tremble. And the wall beside the torch began moving up, creating a doorway. Then I noticed that the torch handle was slightly pushed back with Shinji's head bump.

This lucky bastard!